In this section a single matrix
is given, that shows all functions
with shared names and identical or analogous semantics and their polymorphical
overloads across the class templates of the icl.
Associated are the corresponding functions of the stl
for easy comparison. In order to achieve a concise representation, a series
of placeholders are
used throughout the function matrix.

The placeholder's purpose
is to express the polymorphic usage of the functions. The first column of the function matrix contains
the signatures of the functions. Within these signatures T
denotes a container type and J
and P polymorphic argument
and result types.

Within the body of the matrix, sets of boldface
placeholders denote the sets of possible instantiations for a polymorphic
placeholder P. For instance
eiS denotes that for the argument type P, an element e, an interval i or an interval_set S can be instantiated.

If the polymorphism can not be described in this way, only the number of overloaded implementations for
the function of that row is shown.

Many but not all functions of icl intervals
are listed in the table above. Some specific functions are summarized in
the next table. For the group of the constructing functions, placeholders
d
denote discrete domain types and c denote continuous domain types T::domain_type
for an interval_type T and
an argument types P.

Iterators on interval conainers that are
refered to in section Iteration of the function synopsis
table are segment iterators.
They reveal the more implementation specific aspect, that the fundamental
aspect abstracts from. Iteration over segments is fast, compared to an iteration
over elements, particularly if intervals are large. But if we want to view
our interval containers as containers of elements that are usable with std::algoritms,
we need to iterate over elements.

Iteration over elements . . .

is possible only for integral or discrete domain_types

can be very slow
if the intervals are very large.

and is therefore depreciated

On the other hand, sometimes iteration over interval containers on the element
level might be desired, if you have some interface that works for std::SortedAssociativeContainers
of elements and you need to quickly use it with an interval container. Accepting
the poorer performance might be less bothersome at times than adjusting your
whole interface for segment iteration.

Caution

So we advice you to choose element iteration over interval containers
judiciously. Do not
use element iteration by default or habitual.
Always try to achieve results using namespace global functions or operators
(preferably inplace versions) or iteration over segments first.